Asimov’s third book of his Foundation series – “Second Foundation” is a 4 star book, purely on merit of the strategic climax pulled off in the story. I think it is worth a read to experience the story, but it suffers from the same things as his previous books in the series: static characters and very simplistic storylines.

Two thoughts here:

The second foundation reminds me of the one of those stories that have a ton of story and backstory… just to set up the big pun (in this case a strategic stroke of brilliance).

It also reminds me of a big chess game with grand strokes. He effectively believes in Great people and naively focuses on a small subset of people that “change the course of history”. People prepare their chess moves in advance, and proceed to out-duel each other in a series of “i think you think i think” battles.

It’s hard to explain why Asimov is not a beautiful writer, but the stories always feel transactional, the twists forced, and sides with heavily unfair advantages. There’s little nuance to the books, and it all feels like a mediocre storyline that carries you over to the Little Twist, and then the Big Twist.

Overall I enjoy Asimov’s vision, themes and the diversity in which people engage with the “greater purpose” of the Seldon plan. Some people become complacent, while others become skeptical, and others fanatical. He uses generational gaps as a tool to refresh characters and show that sometimes the lessons of the past are forgotten.

Asimov was only 22 when he wrote this genre-defining “Foundation” series. I’ll attribute to his youth the brilliant imagination but simple understanding of human nature in this series. Despite whatever criticism is commonly leveled against Asimov, he rightfully deserves being one of the “big three” science fiction authors.